In Silence, the Word
by firehawk05
Summary: Kanda-centric. Fairly general, some hints of Kanda and Linalee. Spoilers to arrival of Team Theodore in Edo.


Author's Note:

Written for the September D.Gray Man Flash Fic challenge for Surelyyoujest. Many thanks to Raynos for beta reading and wading through the initial draft.

Poem the story is based on is taken from the Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin. Spoilers up to team Theodore arriving in Edo. Some Kanda x Linalee implied. I do not own either Earthsea or D.Gray Man.

* * *

_Only in silence the word,  
only in dark the light,  
only in dying life:  
bright the hawk's flight  
on the empty sky._

An unruly autumn wind rushes through the forest, rattling branches and shaking down leaves. Then it turns its attention to the silent figure sitting statue like in the center of the clearing. The same gust drags icy fingers through inky black locks, loosing them from their binding. It tugs playfully at the figure's scarf, as if trying to get his attention. Yet, the boy never stirs. From under a heavy fringe, dark eyes track the flight of migrating birds as they streak across the sky. For an instant, a hunger burns in their depths, a yearning perhaps for a life less ordinary.

A bell tolls in the distance, signaling the end of the day and the imminent closure of the town's gates. The boy stands up sighing heavily, tugging his hair back into some semblance of a ponytail. The wind, thus slighted, dies down, sulking.

…

The townspeople are uneasy. The dwindling number of traders carry word of yet another neighboring town destroyed in the dark. Bustling one day, ghost towns the next, buildings reduced to heaps of smoking rubble. Though most know it not, their town is under siege as around them, others fall to an unknown enemy.

Rumors spread like wildfire.

_The friend of a friend lost her only son. Or was it a daughter. _

_Does it even matter? Better get all your children home early. Before darkness falls and demons rise._

_May God keep you and your family safe. _

In the doorway of her home, a mother waits anxiously, for a dark figure to saunter up the path, oblivious. Seeing him, she can't help calling to him to hurry.

"Hurry up, Yuu-chan!"

He scowls, but picks up his pace and she relaxes a little. The evening looks to be a fine one, despite the gathering dark.

Still, the only time she allows herself to feel relief, is when her family is finally gathered around the hearth, doors locked and barred against the night.

…

_  
The world is burning. All around townspeople stagger out of their houses, clothes ablaze. They walk out of blaze that was their home and into a storm of deadly glowing lilac rain. When the lilac light hits them and they fall screaming to the ground. Yet, no sound emerges. Some notice him, the only one standing unscathed and advance on him, writhing inhumanly in their own personal hell. The flames start to lick at his feet. He's paralyzed. It's getting harder and harder to breathe..._

The boy, named Yuu, trapped in a nightmare, tosses and turns in his bed, tangled in the sheets.

_The voice seems to come out of no where, calling him. Come._

He wakes, sweat soaking his sheets. Illusionary flames fail to flicker in the chill night air.

_It was only a dream. It was only a dream. _

Then it comes again, in the silence of the night. "Come."

He knows its odd, talking to himself, in the middle of the night. Still he needs an answer. "What do you want of me?"

An image flash of his nightmare hits him like a wet towel in the face.

Shaken, he sneers at the dark in a show of bravado. "Che. Everyone knows that was only a dre..."

The first screams begin in the distance, causing the hair on arms to stand. Before he knows it, he's pulling on clothes as fast as his shaking hands will let him.

"Come."

He's trotting down the path, feeling like a capital idiot. After all, it's the middle of the night. He's squeezed out a window and climbed his gate. All this for a dream. If not for the tugging in his soul to answer the call he'd have turned around and gone back to bed.

An eerie keening raises the hairs on the back of his neck. An explosion from behind picks him up like a rag doll and hurls him face down in the dirt. When the stars clear, he sees a dark shadow drifting out of the burning remnants of his home. A blind panic seizes him, galvanizing trembling limbs into flight.

Almost as if by chance, his flight takes him to the temple. An orb of light is suspended just above the altar. _That was never there before,_ he thinks irrelevantly. The glow is warm and encouraging as if beckoning him nearer. He hesitates on the portal, unsure. In his eight year old mind, the night's happenings have already gone out of the realm of interesting, to the surreal.

A shadow looms out of the smoke of the burning town, moonlight glinting dully off metal panels. A grotesque silver mask plastered on to the floating ball of steel leers down at him. He is rooted to the spot. The barrel of a gigantic canon swings slowly into place. His jaw works, to mouth an unfamiliar phrase. The words rattle in his dry throat only to emerge as the barest whisper.

"Innocence, activate…"

A great flash of light slices through the darkness and he knows no more.

…

Ten years on, the boy is now a battle hardened youth and a full fledged exorcist. Slung across his back is a katana - the form his Innocence took on the night of blood and ash so many years ago.

Some days, he remembers a windswept hill and dancing autumn leaves. The memory and the longing it used to evoke have faded with time and it seems like it's he's lived a lifetime since then.

Come to think of it, he has, by standard definitions, lived a lifetime since he was chosen. Several lives in fact. A sardonic grin tugs at the corners of his mouth and he only manages to stop himself for reaching unconsciously for the tattoo upon his breast.

A little voice within reminds him that _He_ was the one who wanted a life less ordinary.

_Che. Shut up and focus on finding the enemy. With any luck, you won't be dying today. Again. _

A rush of speed from behind. With an elegant whirl, he executes a spin and cut with his sword which takes his enemy's head clean off. The impact jars his wrists for an instant sending pain shooting up his arms. Then this fades as the accelerated healing kicks in.

"Look out Yuu!"

He would like to have growled at Lavi for even daring to use his first name, for triggering the memory of a faceless figure standing in a doorway such a very long time ago. But he doesn't have the time. Or the breath, the Akuma's blade has caved in his chest. Grimly, but with the defiant strength of a beserker, he lashes out with Mugen and is rewarded by a scream of pain and an explosion.

With the last explosion, he collapses to the ground, feeling numb. It's days like this when he'd just like to lay it all down and stop. If only for a while. If only like forever.

A rustle of skirts and a pattering of booted heels nearby signal her arrival. Her hair brushes against him as she places her head against his chest not caring that he's covered with blood, among other things. Instead, she listens intently for his heart beat, almost reassuring herself that he's still alive. She's warm. It's not an unpleasant sensation, even as he lies fighting for breath, trying to figure out what he's feeling. It confounds him, since she's obviously Allen's. The unfamiliarity of it all, it irritates him.

"Who would die from something like that?" He manages to rasp out, startling her. She withdraws, concern warring with irritation plain in her eyes. A retort dies on her lips and she sighs a little, turning away.

Team Theodore is back in Edo. Kanda's never been back more than a few times since he left and even then only on missions. Never stayed more than a few days each time either. Comparing the town to his fuzzy childhood memories, It looks pretty much the same as before, same brick houses, same tiled roofs, curved up at the corners. Same rice paper windows, divided into neat squares by bamboo struts. Same whine and scream of Akuma bullets raining down on the distant parts of the town.

_Same old, same old. Funny how nothing changes. _

"What do your ears percieve, Mari?"

"I hear the voices of Lavi and Linalee and the rest of Cross' squad. Amid the mechanical groans of Akuma."

_Tch. What did I tell you._

"Go to them."

Two heads swivel around seeking approval from the benign looking old man at their back. The old artist who looked more suited to grandfathering his charges than sending them out into battle, General Theodore. He nods once and they're off headed once more into combat.

Even without Mari's enhanced hearing, he hears the screams. In the cacophony, he identifies Linalee's voice, raised in rage and fear. Anger gives him wings and sends him leaping to strike at the monstrous enemy.

_Like hell. This one's going down._

From where the General stands, he has a good view of his disciples as they engage the enemy. A smile, but only a suggestion of one, flits across his face as sees the gigantic Akuma start to teeter and fall.

"May God bless and keep you strong. Fly well, my hawk."


End file.
